The Future Of What Podcast
A Podcast About the State of the Music Industry
Founded by Music Biz President, Portia Sabin as a way to educate musicians on the realities of the music business, The Future of What Podcast has become a forum where significant voices in our industry discuss important issues of the day. Tune in as she hosts important industry figureheads and innovators alike in exciting discussions on where the music business is headed next!
November 12, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #272 — Updates on Indie Music Retail from The Vinyl Groove Records, The Sound Garden and Zia Records!
In this episode, we caught up with David Wolfe of The Vinyl Groove Records, Bryan Burkert of The Sound Garden, and Mike Durham & Christina Wilson of Zia Records, who highlight the everlasting importance of physical music by diving into exciting happenings at each of their stores. Our guests discuss the impact of the recent Luminate + Street Pulse deal, how Black Friday serves as “Record Store Day Lite,” the resurgence of the CD, and the younger generation’s affinity for vinyl.... Click Here To Listen
November 4, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #271 — Safeguarding Our Industry: Inside Vobile’s Fight Against Fraud
The need for meaningful rights protection will always exist across both the video and audio content industries. Expanding their arm into the audio field with the acquisition of Pex, Vobile now provides solutions for both. We brought Vobile’s SVP of Sales, Larry Mills onto the podcast to discuss the robust sector of the music industry that is fighting against the mass scale of fraud occurring on a daily basis. Mills identifies the important differences between fraudulent assets and fraudulent behavior,... Click Here To Listen
October 28, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #270 — How Mamas In Music is Caring for Caregivers in Our Industry
Consideration of those in a caregiving role is often an afterthought in many industries, but creative industries add an extra layer of challenge due to inconsistent income and schedules. While looking for support in her journey of motherhood while maintaining a career in music, Mamas In Music co-founder Tiff Randol noticed a lack of community, and banded together with Mary Leay to create this support system. We connected with Tiff to discuss the events, partnerships and other initiatives Mamas In Music is looking to put forward,... Click Here To Listen
October 21, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #269 — Reinventing Music Search: AIMS’ Solution for Precision and Unbiased Results
Searching large catalogs via tags can be time-consuming, reinforce biases toward what we already know to save time, and leave a large portion of artist works unexplored. AIMS API looks to utilize AI as an assistive tool for objective and accurate full-catalog discovery via search options that include natural language prompts, similar audio matching, and lyric search to benefit clients working as editors, sound designers, music supervisors, and beyond. In this episode, AIMS CTO Einar Helde unpacks the company’s origins,... Click Here To Listen
October 14, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #268 — How Bootleg is Super-Serving Superfans With a New Kind of Merch
Superfans have been discussed as a promising new revenue stream for artists, and Bootleg is leaning into this concept with an app designed to allow fans to purchase limited release, high-quality audio merch captured from live shows. This platform not only creates direct revenue for touring artists, but helps fans across genres build a community with fellow concert-goers. We spoke with founder Rod Yancy about the app’s offerings, the value The MLC provides in licensing music,... Click Here To Listen
October 7, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #267 — Gut Instincts and Data: The Constants of A&R’s Evolution
Killphonic Rights is a creator-founded, full-service music company, with Michelle Fantus serving as Head of A&R. Michelle has witnessed the evolution of artists and repertoire over her tenure in the industry, seeing music consumption go from iTunes downloads to streaming, and now music discovery being redefined by AI & algorithms. While some things have changed for A&R over the past decade, the practice remains the same at its core. In this episode, Michelle walks through the performance measures that A&Rs of both the past and present evaluate,... Click Here To Listen
September 30, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #266 — ONErpm’s Artist-First Approach to Business
As a distributor, publishing company, creator of DIY platform OFFstep and one of the world’s largest music MCNs on YouTube, ONErpm is considered a full-service, modern record label. The company puts artists at the forefront by emphasizing transparency and education at both the front end and back end, and even has its own CMS platform for artists to track spending & marketing plans. In this episode, Head of Marketing Jenna LoMonaco details how ONErpm supports &... Click Here To Listen
September 23, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #265 — What It Means to Win A Clio Award: A Chat With Michael Kauffman
The Clio Awards have celebrated advertising & creative works across industries dating back to the 1950s, diversifying into different programs over time, including Clio Music in 2014. In this episode, we speak with Michael Kauffman of Clio Music on the three pillars of The Clios, and break it down further into the three award areas of the music branch, along with how to enter. Michael also expands on the true value of recent winning campaigns from around the globe,... Click Here To Listen
September 16, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #264 — How Has Music Evolved Into Such a Viable Asset Class?
In the past, artists needed to sign with record labels who would take out bank loans in order to provide financing. Now thanks to companies like Sound Royalties, artists can receive financing via advances without giving up any ownership. Possible income generating streams for artists have also grown from few to many, transforming music into a viable asset class. In this episode, Alex Heiche discusses how this evolution occurred, the importance of educating artists on where their income is coming from,... Click Here To Listen
August 26, 2025 – The Future of What Episode #263 — Assessing the State of AI in Music with Voice-Swap’s Mike Pelczynski @ Music Biz 2025!
Mike Pelczynski has been a part of many important conversations on the subject of AI as the Chief Strategic and Innovation Officer of voice conversion platform, Voice-Swap. These discussions revealed that general sentiments towards AI have shifted from fear to that of constructive concern. In this episode, Mike examines how some issues posed by AI can be addressed using solutions we are already familiar with, the importance of strategic partners for major stakeholders, how the music industry’s approach to AI guides other industries,... Click Here To Listen
